Process for splitting whalebone by hand.



M. WEISHAUS. PROOESS FOE SPLITTING WHALEBONE BY HAND.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 26. 1910.

1,039,860. Patented Oct. 1, 1912.

IN VEN TOR WITNES ES I I v w 23/ flamrWfi d. 1 7 Home CbLUMBKA PIJNOGRAPH CO" WASHNGION. D (L proved process,

MORITZ WEISHAUS, OF BERLIN, GERMANY.

PROCESS FOR SPLITTING WHALEBONE BY HAND.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 1,1912.

Application filed April 26, 1910. Serial No. 557,715.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Monirz WEISHAUS, a subject of the German Emperor, and resident of WVeissenburgerstrasse 28, Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for Splitting iVhalebone by Hand.

Figure l is a plan View of a fin of a whale in its normal condition. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the same. Fig. 8 is an edge view of the fin after it has been pressed. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the same showing a knife or other instrument in position for splitting. Fig. 5 is a View of one of the sections after having been split, one end of which is untrimmed. Fig. 6 is a View of a whale-bone which has been out by my imand Fig. 7 is a view of a whale-bone which has been cut by machinery.

Whale bone split by hand is more durable than whale bone split by mechanical means, for the following reason. The organic substance found in whale bone, is a hairlike substance, and if the whale bone is split by hand, the section follows the way of the fibers, and the remaining portions of the whale bone remain untouched, but when whale bone is split by some mechanical means the machine takes a direct course and hence the fibers or hairlike substance are often cut, thereby rendering the whale bone weak and less valuable. The splitting of whale bone by hand may be easily carried out with the Greenland whale bone, such method being exclusively employed some twenty years ago; owing to the scarcity of the Greenland whale bone, the fins of the more frequently encountered northern whales, whose fins do not possess the tensional properties of the Greenland whale, have been used as a substitute, the lacking tensional properties being artificially added by dipping the same into grease and submitting its curved surfaces to hydraulic pressure. Thus to a certain extent the tensional properties of the Greenland whale bone have been added to the inferior an improved method of splitting the northern whale bone by hand has not been found hand, consisting in whale bone, but

until now. As soon as the splitting knife such as used on a machine, is applied to the thick or rear end of a whale bone, the knife very soon leaves the center line of the fin, and divides the bone in more or less uneven parts. The knife does not follow at the thick end of the fin, the fibers which are not so sharply indicated by nature and besides these fibers have been shifted by the flat sided compression, or united in a rather homogeneous whole, thus the practical employment of the whale bone has been rendered more diflicult.

According to the present invention, the fiat sided compression of the northern whale fins is avoided, and the required straightening of the fins is only carried out by pressure exerted on the edge of the fin, and the splitting of the fin is no longer carried out from the thick or rear end thereof, but from the point at which the fibrous structure has been preserved, but as this point in all whale bones is composed of loose fibers, there is at first no surface for applying a hand splitting knife, and it is difficult to determine the exact line for splitting purposes. For the aforesaid reason according to this invention, the fibrous point of the fin is cut away, and the splitting of the dried and cold whale fins is carried out by hand after the said ends have been cut away, the splitting knife having been correctly guided in the large parts of the length of the fin by the structure of the fibers in the front portion thereof, the knife follows willingly the central splitting line and through the rear part of the fin.

lVhat I claim is:

l A process for splitting whale bone by cutting away the fibrous point of the fins which has been straightened by edgewise pressure, and splitting the fin in a dry cold state from the fibrous point thereof.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set.

my hand in presence of two witnesses.

MORITZ WEISHAUS. Witnesses:

WOLDEMAB HAUP'I, HENRY HASPER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

